Professional, Skilled Tree Pruning is a Combination of Art and Science

Expert pruning is the bedrock of the services we provide. Our arborists know the science behind what they do and when and where pruning techniques can be applied to help your trees thrive. Our professional services will eliminate hazardous branches, promote healthy new growth and improve light and air circulation in your trees. You’ll see more attractive and vigorous green growth—and your trees will better withstand challenges from the natural environment, including storms, wind, ice, drought and pests.

Different methods of pruning provide different results and specific benefits for your trees.

Crown Cleaning

Crown cleaning is the removal of dead, dying, diseased, crowded, rubbing, and structurally unsound branches. It will reduce the risk of branch failure, improve plant health, and enhance the appearance of trees and shrubs. A high level of skill is required for crown cleaning, yet the cost for this very sound type of pruning is comparable to that for harmful methods of pruning (topping!)

Crown Thinning

Crown thinning includes the selective removal of branches to ensure light and air penetration. Thinning reduces weight on heavy limbs and helps return the tree to its natural shape. This method requires the highest skill and may initially cost more than less effective pruning techniques, but properly thinned trees require less frequent pruning and are much more resistant to storm damage.

Branch Habit Training

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” certainly applies to the pruning of young trees. Branch habit training is a procedure applied to immature and ornamental trees to promote good structure and an attractive appearance by incrementally removing undesirable “temporary” limbs such as co-dominant leaders, low limbs and suckers. This type of “training” can be applied to your trees over the course of multiple prunings. Less foliage is removed and fewer, smaller wounds are left on the tree surface—which can also be important to younger or ornamental trees. Pruning for branching habit training requires a high degree of skill, but is an excellent way to protect an investment in new trees at your property. The cost is minimal, and it is the best method to prevent larger, more complicated problems that may result when trees mature with poor structure or conflict with other trees or structures.

Van Yahres Tree Company will not use pruning methods that will actually harm your trees.

There are pruning methods you will NOT see on your work order from Van Yahres Tree Company because they offer less benefit or are specifically harmful to your trees. These types of procedures are deceiving because initially they may appear to offer a bargain. But in the long term each of the procedures outlined below may actually cost you more by diminishing your trees’ overall health.

Topping. It does not take much skill or money to cut the top out of a tree. It is also, in most cases, a fine way to ruin a tree for life. This type of pruning ruins the natural, healthy branching habit and can actually perpetuate unhealthy limb growth. Because of the severity of the cuts required, wounds on large limbs decay and cause structural weakness in future growth. All things considered, topping is the most expensive form of pruning.

Skinning Out or “lion-tailing” is caused by removing all or most of the inner foliage. This places foliage weight at the ends of the branches and often results in sunburn, watersprouts, weakened branch structure and limb breakage. While many homeowners equate proper pruning with the removal of interior limbs, it takes little skill to do this kind of work and, although the short-term cost appears low, the long-term cost to your tree’s health can be quite high.